Published & Sold by I: Nathan Nᵒ 7 Poland Street Oxford Strᵗ. and to be had at the principal Music and Booksellers. [Price One Guinea. (1815.) (_4to._ 4 _ll._ + 133 _pp._) [I. S.] A second edition was published in 1861. (_4to._ 2 _ll._ + 218 _pp._) [B. M.] LIII. EARL OF SHAFTESBURY’S ZIONIST MEMORANDUM SCHEME FOR THE COLONISATION OF PALESTINE _Lord Ashley¹ to Viscount Palmerston._ “ST. GILES HOUSE, “_September 25th, 1840_. ¹ Succeeded his father in 1851 as the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. “MY LORD, “The Powers of Europe having determined that they will take into their own hands the adjustment of the Syrian Question, I venture to suggest a measure, which being adopted will promote the development of the immense fertility of all those countries that lie between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean Sea. “The consideration of the person or the authority to whom these territories may be assigned by the award of the contracting Powers is of no importance. The plan presupposes simply the existence of a recognised and competent Dominion; the establishment and execution of Laws; and a Government both willing and able to maintain internal peace. “These vast regions are now nearly desolate; every year the produce of them becomes less, because the hands that should till them become fewer. As a source of revenue they are almost worthless, compared, at least, with the riches that industry might force from them. They require both labour and capital. “Capital, however, is of too sensitive a nature to flow with readiness into any country where neither property nor life can be regarded as secure; but if this indispensable assurance be first given, the avarice of man will be a sufficient motive, and it will betake itself with alacrity to any spot where a speedy or an ample return may be promised to the speculator. “An inducement such as this is sufficient to stimulate the mercantile zeal of every money-maker under Heaven, and it would be advisable that the Power, whoever he may be, to whom these provinces may fall, should issue and perform a solemn engagement to establish, in his laws affecting property, the principles and practices of European civilisation: but, in respect of these regions now under dispute, there are, so far as a numerous, though scattered, people is concerned, other inducements and other hopes, over and above those which influence the general mass of mankind.